What’s cooking? #vacationsoup update. I’m happy to announce that the vacation soup learning centre is now officially open. You can access it at https://learn.vacationsoup.com As well as our free website creation course and the blogging and VS plugin course there are over 400 videos (see the ‘more resources’ section) on all sorts of subjects including SEO for beginners, WordPress tutorials, Facebook marketing, Google analytics, Instagram for beginners, Brand Storytelling, Social...

#vacationsoup What’s cooking, update. I just wanted to thank the 100’s of you that have signed up for free websites and free plugins. I also wanted to let you know that the new free website and video course will roll out next week. We will start with 10 owners (just to check that everything is working as it should) and invite everyone else the following week. You can see a...

I’ve just spent a great weekend at the Vacation Rental World Summit in Florence. I was fortunate enough to be asked to present a session on ‘the future of vacation rental marketing’. Here is a video version of my presentation which is a prequel to more videos and links that I will be sharing throughout the coming weeks. Destination marketing is here – Listing site interdependence is coming. Please take...

Everything That You Every Wanted To Know About Airbnb But Were Afraid To Ask We came across this very interesting thread on Reddit where an Airbnb case manager was answering questions anonymously. There are a huge amount of questions and answers here but the insight is quite fascinating (case manager’s notes are in blue). I am a case manager with Airbnb, go ahead and ask me anything, even if you...

People are starting to realise that Airbnb aren’t what they say they are. We came across this story on Buzzfeed and thought that we would share it here. We’ve have been saying for as long as we can remember that Airbnb is misleading people with it’s core messages. This company isn’t about a sharing economy, it’s all about Airbnb’s economy. 11% of every transaction. It certainly isn’t about living like...

5 PR Goals for Your Vacation Rental Generating publicity for a vacation rental business is a goal that most vacation rental owners and managers would agree that they would have. But, how do you go about actually achieving this? PR is a skilled profession usually left in the hands of professionals, however there are certain actions that you can take that can make your vacation rental business a little more...

Laughable Best Match Video From HomeAway In my opinion this sort of sums up Homeaway – A badly made video – badly trying to be funny (why?) – A multi billion dollar company, a five dollar video (oh look, Bob’s in the photocopier room, that’s just hilarious). Anyway, this video is meant to explain best match to owners and managers. Bob walks us through the 7 points of best match...

By Mercedes Brennan TRY THIS DANISH STRATEGY TO INCREASE WINTER VACATION RENTAL BOOKINGS When temperatures drop, the low to non-existent bookings season begins for many vacation rental properties. It’s winter and people like to stay at home and drink tea and putter. There are two approaches to this scenario: 1) You accept that bookings are thin and take a break from the short-term rental business. Or…. 2)...

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionBrian Chesky’s AirBnB has more than three million locations listed so far What started as literally an air bed on the floor in Brian Chesky’s apartment has blossomed into a service that has more than three million locations listed around the world. AirBnB, the site that lets you rent out your spare rooms, or indeed your entire home, to tourists, is one of Silicon Valley’s brightest start-ups...

This week we welcome Jess Ashworth from Lodgify.com who joins us to share some social media insights (and a free ebook) regarding Facebook. Vacation rental owners, is your business on Facebook? If you answered no to the above question, you could be missing out big time when it comes to capturing and converting new guests. After reading this post, you’re going to start recognizing the undeniable importance of the world’s biggest...